When owning a rental property, you have to be prepared for unexpected maintenance requests and repairs to happen throughout your tenant’s lease agreement. If you go in with that mindset and understanding, you will not be caught off guard when maintenance issues arise. To get you prepared, we wanted to provide you with the list of our most frequently submitted maintenance requests by tenants here, in Orlando Florida.
AC Service Requests
The Florida heat and humidity does a number on your rental properties HVAC system. We recommend having your unit serviced once a year during the Spring. Every year between February through July, our A/C service requests go through the roof. As algae growth, mildew, and humidity begin to increase; the drain lines will need to be flushed. You can implement preventative measures throughout the lease term like monthly filter delivery subscription and educating your tenant to perform routine cleaning. By pouring a ¼ cup of vinegar into your AC’s drain line, recommended monthly for best results.
Appliance Issues
Appliances tend to be an afterthought and typically neglected from a rental property owner’s perspective. If it’s not broken, why fix it or replace it? However, compared to repair costs it is almost always 100% more advantageous to replace the appliance with a brand new one over-scheduling an appliance repair person to take a look at the unit. Quote you half the price for a brand new unit to repair the 7-year-old appliance, wait 7 days for them to order the part and wallah, $250 later, your seven-year-old unit is still seven years old. When an appliance goes out to consider the age and replace it with a new like brand and color that match. In the long run, you’ll be much better off.
Clogged Plumbing Drain Lines
Growing up in a family with three girls in the house. Clogged drain lines were frequent. The shower would back up, we’d grab a pipe cleaner, and sure enough, we’d pull out a giant cat size hairball from the drain. To prevent an $85 – $150 plumbing request to pull out a hairball, consider a preventative approach by using a shower drain hair catcher. Check out the top 8 shower drain hair catchers here.
Garbage Disposal
We can leave this one brief. The maintenance request comes in… [my garbage disposal is not working.] Troubleshoot; hit the reset button. The majority of tenants do not know this button exists. To replace garbage disposal on average range $185 to $379. Try out a good ole youtube video to troubleshoot the issue with your tenant, such as How to fix a garbage disposal.
Toilet Flapper
A running toilet can cost a property owner a ton of money, primarily when you may be covering the water utility. If your tenant expresses the toilet continues to run, you’ll need to have them check the toilet flapper ceil, have them double-check the chain is connected, and have them wash out the float. If the inner workings of your toilet haven’t been replaced in about five years, you may want to consider swapping them out. Or you can also try to replace just the toilet flapper. Here is a great instructional video on how to replace the toilet flapper. Average full rebuild inner gut rebuild including flush handle, flush valve, flapper, ballcock, and tank bolts costs around $275. Anywhere between $130 to $330.
Final Thoughts as Property Managers
Being prepared for maintenance requests will help keep your mind at ease when the time comes to service them. Always remember to have a maintenance reserve set up for your rental property and expect at least 1.5x your monthly rent for maintenance repairs throughout the lease term. If you go in with this expectation and reserves set aside, maintenance requests will become a breeze.
We love to hear about your experience and your troubleshooting methods. If there are other maintenance requests, you’d like to shed additional light on, please comment below. If you need assistance or insight from an Orlando Property Management Company, please don’t hesitate to contact The Listing Real Estate Management, we’re the trusted choice for property management in Orlando Florida.
